mallarme´s coup

8/10/2019 Mallarmes Coup

1/16

"Du fond d'un naufrage": Notes on Michel Serres and Mallarm's "Un Coup de ds"Author(s): Bonnie J. IsaacSource: MLN, Vol. 96, No. 4, French Issue (May, 1981), pp. 824-838Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2905839.

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2/16

"Du fond

d'un

naufrage":

otes

on

Michel

erres

nd Mallarme's

"Un

Coup

de

des"

Bonnie

J.

Isaac

Vainement

ma raison

voulait

prendre

la

barre;

La

tempete

en

jouant

deroutait

ses

efforts,

Et mon ame

dansait,

dansait

vieille

gabarre

Sans

mats,

sur

une mer monstreuse

et sans

bords

Baudelaire,

"Les

Sept

Vieillards"'

Shipwreck

is

always

the risk

of

navigation.

In Mallarme's

"Brise

marine,"

the narrator asks:

Et

peut-etre,

es

mats,

nvitant

es

orages

Sont-ils

de ceux

qu'un

vent

penche

sur les

naufrages

Perdus,

sans

mats,

sans

mats,

ni fertiles

ilots

. .

2

Vasco da Gama, passing the cape "Sans que la barre ne varie," is

nevertheless

threatened

by

"Nuit,

desespoir.

. ."

(OC, 72);

the

ship

of

poets

in "Salut" risks

"Solitude,

recif

.

.

."

(OC, 27).

And

yet

the

words

elided from

the above

two

verses,

"pierrerie"

and

"etoile,"

announce

the

hope

of

the

shipwreck

of

"Un

Coup

de des"

(OC,

457-77).

The Master

of

the

vessel

attempts

to

pit

"sa

petite

raison

virile"

against

the

elements;

"Un

coup

de des

...

quand

bien

meme

lance dans des

circonstances

eternelles

du fond

d'un

naufrage"

1

Charles

Baudelaire,

"Les

Sept

Vieillards,"

Oeuvres

ompletes,

exte

etabli

t annote

par

Y.-G.

Le Dantec. Edition revisee

par

Claude

Pichois

(Paris:

Gallimard,

1961),

p.

84.

2

Stephane

Mallarme,

"Brise

marine,"

Oeuvres

ompletes,

exte

etabli

et

annote

par

Henri

Mondor et

G.

Jean-Aubry

Paris:

Gallimard,

1945),

p.

38.

All

subsequent

references

o Mallarme

will

be

made

in

the

text,

with he abbreviationOC

and

page

number.

MLN Vol. 96

Pp.

824-838

0026-7910/81/0964-0824$01.00 ? 1981 byThe JohnsHopkinsUniversityress

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3/16

M

L

N

825

would,

in

"cette

conjonction

supreme

avec la

probabilite," ttempt

to

transform chance into

necessity:

the

dice-throw,

"l'unique

Nombre

qui

ne

peut pas

etre

un

autre" would be

transfigured

nto

theConstellation,

glimmering

bove the

tempest,

un destin et les

vents."

"Un

Coup

de des"

has

mostoftenbeen

read

in

terms f

relatively

straightforward

ppositions

chance

and

necessity,

he

real and the

ideal,

the

success or failure of Mallarme's

enterprise):

interpretations

hichtend toward a

synthesis,

hose

goal,

like that

of

the

dice-throw,

might

e

to

"en

reployer

a division

t

passe

fier."

Robert

Greer

Cohn,

in

his

seminal

"exegesis"

of

"Un

Coup

de

des,"

maintains that the traditional interpretation, embodied by

Thibaudet,

emphasizes

Mallarme's failure to attain the Grand

Oeuvre,

the

absolute;

the

Master would renounce his lifetime

illusion,

whichfactwould at

least

explain

the

title:

Un

coup

de

des

jamais

n'abolira le

hasard."3 Thibaudet's

analysis

s

however more

nuanced:

the

attempts

o attain

necessity, ure

logic,

re doomed to

failure,

ut

the workwould

figure

ess a

shipwreck,

n unsuccessful

battle

gainst

the

sea,

than a battle

gainstenigma,

n

the domain of

the

spirit:4

he

fact hat

n

"Un

Coup

de des" there s

no

first-person

narrator,

as

in

Baudelaire's "Les

Sept

Vieillards,"

might

tend

to

support

this view.

On

the level of an abstract

combat,

Deleuze's

assessment,

rom Nietzschean

perspective,

s

much ess

optimistic.

If,

for

Nietzsche,

he

dice-throw emands

a

strict

nterdependence

of chance and

necessity-chance

being

the

dice before the

throw,

sea and

waves;

necessity

the dice after

the

throw,

the

constellation-Mallarme

is

ultimately

unable to

maintain

this

disjunctive

imultaneity.

is failure would result from

supposed

necessity to exclude chance, contingency being necessarily

subservient o

the

pure

idea.5

The

movements of "Un

Coup

de

des"-both textual and

metaphorical-would

tend to undercut

such

polarities.

The

writings

f Michel

Serres on

thermodynamics,

nformation nd

game theory,

he

mathematics f

large populations

and

atomism

exploit

a certain kind

of

multiplicity

which,

though

to

my

knowledge,

erres has

never

explicitly nalyzed

Mallarme,

resonate

3

Robert Greer

Cohn,

Mallarme's

Un

Coup

de des": An

Exegesis

New

Haven:

Yale

French Studies

Publication,

1949),

p.

4.

4

Albert

Thibaudet,

La Poesiede

Stephane

Mallarme

Paris:

Gallimard,

1926),

pp.

422-23,

429.

5

Gilles

Deleuze,

Nietzschet a

philosophie

Paris:

Presses

Universitaires

e

France,

1973),

pp.

29,

37-38.



4/16

826

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

with

a

strange

persistence

with

many

Mallarmean

metaphors,

particularly

hose of "Un

Coup

de

des." I

by

no

means wish to

suggest

the

imposition

f a "scientific"model on a

"literary"

work,

particularly

iven

Serres'

frequently

eiterated autions

against

the

passage

from the

"local"

to

the

"global";

I

wish to

explore

a

fluid,

mobile

relationship,

ts movement

nd

flow.The

local

connections

suggested by

shared

concepts

and

metaphors, by

similar

configurations

nd

dynamics,

would

not

point

to

any

generalizable

conclusions,

uch

as

"theories

of

science

n

Mallarme."

would

wish

rather

to

approach

a

confluence,

a

convergence

of rivers

which

flow, wirl,formeddies, whirlpools nd turbulences, n uncertain

times and

uncertain

places,

suggesting

that

combination

of

indeterminateness nd

rigor

which

Mallarme,

in

his

formulations

of the

nature

of

le

vers,

might

wish

to

attain.

For

Serres,

the

basis of

any

system-linguistic,

theoreticalor

scientific-is a

stock,

reservoir,

haos,

chora: the

"lieu"

perhaps

of

"Rien n'aura

eu

lieu

que

le

lieu"

of

"Un

Coup

de

des."

It

is,

as

in

Plato's

Timaeus,

receptacle,

womb: thatwhich

changes

names

but

has no name,thatwhichundoes or separatesthrough ondensation

or

compression,

clouds,

fog

or

running

water,

displacement

or

liquidation.

It

is

anteriorto

all

movement,

difference,

omination,

form:

topological

pace

where

"tous es

chemins,

ous es

sens

sont

frayables,

ossibles";

t

s the

space

before

meaning,

direction

sens),

circulation.6

t is

the

space

where atoms flow

n

a

"chaos-verseau"

or

fluctuate

n

a

"chaos-nuage,"

displaced,

at

uncertain

imes nd

at

uncertain

places,

by

the

clinamen,

"ecart

a

l'equilibre,"

the

"diffirentielle,

a

fluxion,

la

foudre

qui

traverse

la chute de

la

pluie," a stochastic, leatory"turbulence" n an

"orderly"

haos,7

spiralling

motion

which

creates the

possibility

of

order,

of

relationships

NP, 34).

It

is

perhaps

no

accident

that for

Mallarme,

the

way

one

would

read

differently,

erceiving

words

"independently

of

ordinary

succession,"

s "on

a

bias,

contingently."

he

"meteorology"

f

the

"crise

de

vers" s

a

storm,

he

reflection

nd refraction f

raindrops

6Michel Serres,HermesV: La DistributionParis: Minuit,1977), pp. 60, 242. All

subsequent

references o

thiswork will

be

made

in

the

text

with

he

abbreviation

.

The

reader

should note

the

equal importance

of

the

chora

n

the

work of

Julia

Kristeva,

particularly

n

her

interpretation

f

Mallarme,

n

La

Revolution

u

langage

poetique

Paris:

Seuil,

1974).

7

Michel

Serres,

La

Naissance de la

physique

ans le

texte e

Lucrece:

fleuves

et

turbulences

Paris:

Minuit,

1977),

pp.

11-12.

Subsequent

references o

this

workwill

be made in

the

text,

with

the

abbreviation

NP.



5/16

M L

N

827

and

lightning.

Analogously,

the

relationship

between music and

letters s also

"meteorological":

alternationsof

light

and

shadows

characterize le moderne des meteiores,a symphonie" OC, 365),

provoking

"intemperies"

of

"divers ciels"

(OC, 646),

perhaps

the

same

"circonstances" f "Un

Coup

de des."

Language,

at

great

risk,

would

extract

direction

sens)

from

"la

chute des

sons nus"

(OC,

385):

for

Serres as

well,

"meteorology"

ndicates

risk-unpredict-

ability,

torm,

shipwreck

and

tempest,

"nuages,

trombes,

chutes

de

grele

ou

giboulees,

direction et force du

vent.

Accident,

cir-

constances.

Voisinage

hasardeux,

environnement venementielde

l'essentiel,

e

la stance"

(NP,

85).

Ifatoms are letters, hen thetext, nformation,an be bornfrom

the

same kind of

turbulence,

s Mallarme

also

suggests:

Le

livre,

xpansion

otale e la

lettre,

oit

d'elle

tirer,

irectement,

ne

mobilite t

spacieux,

ar

correspondances,

nstituern

eu,

on ne

sait,

qui

confirme

a fiction.

ien

de

fortuit,a,

ou semble

n

hasard

apter

1'idee....

(OC,

380)

For

Serres,

atom-letters s'associent

en

phrases,

se rassemblent

n

volumes" (NP, 32); their

aggregate

is words, and meaning is

formed

by

the

oblique

flash of

the clinamen

cross

background

noise.

The

poem

is

"coupe

d'eclairs ... Hachures

inclinees

qui

dictent,

emps par

temps,

une nouvelle

pente

...

ses tourbillons

e

mots

conjoints,

ur

un

talweg

coupe

de

catastrophes"

NP, 46).

For

Mallarme,

the flow

of words

("charroi,"

"courant"

[OC,

1576])

necessitates

ome kind

of

textual

spacing.

For

Serres,

nformations

characterized

by

ts

rarity

n

the face of

theconstantflowofatoms,of theconstantmovementofthecloud

he

names

"distribution."

Le

message

y

est

chaotique,

un

nuage

de

lettres.

Mieux,

d'elements

quelconques, peut-etre pas

encore

de

lettres

.. le

bruit

qui

tourbillonne

.. au

profit

de

la turbulence"

(D,

14).

Information

ttempts

o

emerge

as

archipelagoes

n

a

sea

of

noise,

a

riskynavigation

which

engages

a

potential

mitter-receiver

in

a violent world.

Mallarme,

in "Le

Mystere

dans les

lettres,"

recognizes

the

impossibility

f

a

"neutral"

discourse,

the

necessity

of"diving"

nto

a text

OC, 385).

For Serres as

well,

Nous

baignons

dans des entrelacs

de

canaux

...

plonge[s]

dans les

fleuves

objectifs.

Recepteur,

en

son

lieu,

emetteur ous tous

angles.

Battu,

frappe,

blesse

... douloureux ..."

(NP,

63).

The

text is one

circulation

mong

others,

Naufrage,

nclinaison

e

texte,

hute des

atomes et

cataracte

des

lettres"

NP,

88).

In

any

such

atmosphere,



6/16

828

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

any

information, communication,

would

appear

miraculous.

Discourse is a

clinamen,

mong

the

cataractof

atom-letters,

reatinga turbulence

through

whichone must

carefully

navigate:

on

ne

gouverne amais

un

vaisseau

que par

l'angle

d'inclinaison

donne

au

gouvernail,

utour de

quoi

les filets

'eau laissent

eurs

turbulences:

alors

l'iclair

cligne

et

claque

comme

un

clinamen

erceptible,

utourde

quoi

les vents et les

nuages

forment

eurs tourbillons.

(NP,

99,

102)

Between

turbulences

and

whirlwinds,

it

is the

relationships

between words which make language possible: "en-deca de la

relation,

l

n'y

a

que nuages

dans

le

vide,

lettres

u

atomes"

(NP,

152-53).

It

is that

relationship

which

attempts

o

halt

or

reversethe

other

consequence

of the

clinamen: irreversible

time,

entropy.

The

clinamen

may

describe the

smallest

possible

angle

of

deviation,

but t

also forms he

greatest

ossible angle

of

descent,

declining

oward

new

equilibrium;

necessary

movement

o that nvariancedoes not

mean

repose,

constancy

stasis:

stability

itself can

approach

movement.Language and writing ttempt o resistthe currentof

the river f

entropy,

esist

nclination,

ecline,

the

usury

of

time,

by

the

assembly

of

atom-letters

nto

the

conjunction

nd interstices

f

their

combinations,

signals

emerging

from

noise.

Their

relationships

re for

Serres,

s for

Mallarme,

embodied

in

a kind of

music:

"Comment la

chute

deviee

introduit-elle du

reversible

dans

l'irreversible? 'ou vient

ette

musique,

par

rapport

au chaos-bruit

de

fond,

d'oi vient

le

rythme par

rapport

a l'ecoulement

sans

retour du verseau?" (NP, 168). The inclination of the clinamen

produces

direction, vector,

le

vers.

In

the

interstices

of

that move-

ment,

local

effects, turbulences,

permit

reversibility.

There are

two

kinds

of

music:

that of the

river;

that

of

the

sea:

La

musique

va. Elle

commence,

elle

s'acheve. Ou

plut6t

une

musique

va.

Elle va

du

silence au

silence,

elle

a comme une

source et

un

point

de

terminaison.Une

autre,

nterminable,

'arrete

t ne

s'arrete

pas,

comme

a

un

bord mal

difini,

et

commence aussi

peu,

elle nous

ennoie,

elle nous

submerge.

Une

musique

coule

comme

un fleuve, 'autreest la mer. La

musique

et le

temps.

(NP, 180-87)

One

can discern

in

Mallarme hints

of

the two

kinds

of music

Serres

suggests.

There is that

which,

like the

ocean,

can drown

one

in

a

sea of

emotivity,

"La mer dont mieux

vaudrait se

taire

que



7/16

M L N

829

l'inscrire ans

une

parenthese

si, avec,

n'y

entre

e firmament"

OC,

403).

For the

"crise de

vers,"

"orage

lustrale"

whose

"bouleverse-

ments"

ttempt

o

liberate"la

musicalite

de

tout,"

the sea

exercizes

a "vertuautrement

ttrayante,"

"plenitude"

which is

impossible

to describe

other than

by

allusion,

suggestion

OC,

366).

Mallarme

would

appear

to

prefer

to

the music-sea the

music-river,

hat

which

has

a source

and

a

terminus,

but which nevertheless an

impart

movement,

fluidity,

o le

vers.

And

yet,

ike

navigation

n

"Un

Coup

de

des,"

river

navigation

can have its

dangers,

as the

"maraudeur

aquatique"

of

"Le

Nenuphar

blanc"

(OC,

285)

discovers. As Serres

points

out:

Tous les

mariniersavent ien .

qu'ils

ne

descendent

as

toujours

n

fleuve

ans

efforts.

es

contre-courantses

mmobilisent

arfois,

arfois

les

chassent n

amont.Le

fleuven'est

pas

toujours

ne

route

qui

les

mene

ou

ils veulent

ller.

(NP,

188)

Yet

if

one tries to

go beyond

one's

limits,

ne's

boundaries,

the

"borne

a

l'infini"

f "Un

Coup

de

des,"

one

risks hat

passage

from

local

to

global

thatforSerres

eads

to

potential

violence,risk,

eath.

The uncharted river in "Prose

pour

des Esseintes" (OC, 55-57)

presents

n

the

course of its

navigation

what for Serres s

one of the

greatest

threats: "La

croissance,

perdue

comme

menace,

danger

incontrolables"

(NP, 91).

One cannot

always

control one's

navigation;

the turbulence of the

clinamen

an

produce

order,

reversibility

n

irreversibility,

ut

like

all "meteors"

it

occurs

unpredictably:

t

flickers

"clignotant")

n

the blink

of an

eye

("clin

d'oeil"),

causing

the

shipwreck

f the

"yole

a

clins"

NP,

161):

"Le

sens est formepar le bruit et le derivevers e bruit:espace-temps

du

clignotement

t

du declin. Les

signaux

d'univers

font

es

dins

d'oeil

de la

profondeur

du

nuage"

(NP, 170).

In Mallarme's

terms,

"Un

coup

de

des

jamais

n'abolira le

hasard";

"rien

n'aura

eu

lieu

que

le lieu."

Derrida

in

"La Double

Seance" alludes to theclinamen

n the flow

of

rythmos:8

un din

d'hymen.

Une chute

rythmee.

Une

cadence

inclinee"

(DS,

293).

The

hymen,

itself a kind of

angle,

a

joint

8

Jacques

Derrida,

"La Double

Seance,"

La

Dissemination

Paris:

Seuil,

1972),

pp.

199-317.

Subsequent

references

to

this

work

will

be made

in the

text with the

abbreviation

DS.

For

Serres,

rythmos,

rom

rein,

form,

indicates as well flow

(a

commentary

on the

famous

etymology

of

Benveniste):

thus a

"tourbillon,"

reversibility

n

irreversibility

NP,

190).



8/16

830

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

("clin"),

a

fold,

ndicates

suspense,

an

interval,

Car

la

difference

est

au

moins

l'intervalle

necessaire,

le

suspens

entre deux

echeances, le

'laps'

entredeux

coups,

deux chutes,deux chances"

(DS, 309).

The

play

between

contingency,

necessity

nd

chance

becomes the textual

spacing

of "difference,"

entre-deux,"

"crise

du

rythmos

.

.

rythme,

adence,

declinaison,

decadence,

chute

t

retour"

DS,

312).

The "crisis"

becomes

the risks

of

reversibility

n

irreversibility,

"coup

de des":

Hymen

elon

e

vers,

blanc

encore,

de la

necessite

t

du

hasard

..

Si-elle

6tait,

a

litterature

e tiendrait-elle

ans

e

suspens

u chacune

de ses facesgarde a chance.... La crisede la litt6raturelieuquand

rienn'a lieu

que

le

lieu,

dans 'instance

u

personne

'est a

pour

avoir.

Personne-ne sachant-avant

le

coup-qui

le

dejoue

en

son

echeance-lequel

des six

des-chute.

(DS,

317)

"Un

Coup

de des"

puts

into

motion

the

oppositions

between

chance and

necessity,

rreversibility

nd

reversibility,

he sea

and

the

firmament,

music

and

letters.

It

exploits

metaphors

of

whirlwinds nd turbulences,of navigationand shipwreck, f the

"lieu."

Mauron

maintainsthat

Mallarme's

temporality

ttempts

o

reverse

the

flow of

entropy.9

Jean-Paul

Sartre

sees

Mallarme

as

balancing

"ce

couple

de

contraires

ui

perpetuellement

'engendre

et se

repousse:

le hasard

... la necessite"

n a

heroic stance

against

the

inevitability

f

entropy:

"L'homme

mourant

sur tout le

globe

d'une

desintegration

de

l'atome

ou d'un refroidissement

du

soleil.

.

.

."10

Blanchot transfersthe oppositions to problems of textuality.

Mallarme

would

be

"liberated" from

inear,

temporal

succession,

from

"irreversibility,"

n favor of

ruptures,

discontinuities,

new

kind of

mobility.

Un

Coup

de des" "est

ne d'une

ententenouvelle

de

l'espace

litteraire,

elles

que

puissent s'y

engendrer,

par

des

rapports

nouveaux de

mouvement,

des relations

nouvelles

de

comprehension."Language

is

perceived spatially,

he "lieu"

evoked

by

Serres, "oiu,

avant

d'etre

paroles

determinees

et

exprimees,

e

langage

est

le mouvement

silencieux

de

rapports

...,"

where

"jamais l'instant ne succede a l'instant selon le deroulement

horizontal

d'un

devenir irreversible."11

9

Charles

Mauron,

Des

metaphores

bsedantes

u

mythe

ersonnel

Paris:

Jose

Corti,

1971),

p.

233.

10Jean-Paul

Sartre, "Mallarme,"

Situations

X

(Paris:

Gallimard,

1972),

pp.

191-201;

pp.

198-200.

1

Maurice

Blanchot,

Le

Livre a

venir

Paris:

Gallimard,

1959),

pp.

286,

291.



9/16

M L N

831

For

Cohn,

the

movement of

"Un

Coup

de des" is

engendered

more

"epistemologically," by

the

oscillation

of

opposites

in

paradox.

But

the

resonances of

some of

his

readings

echo

with

those of Serres: "In a

clustering

f words,as in atoms or

planets,

lies

the

law."

The

organizational

capacities

of

atoms,

compared

to

the

eternal

"revolution" of

the

firmament,

mphasize

however

form

over

movement.

His

reading

of"circonstances"

s

antithetical

for this

reason

to

that of

Serres:

if

"circonstances"

re that

which

"stand

around,"

"circonstances

ternelles"

would not

be

perpetual

motion,

but

the

freezing

of

time for one

event.12

Mallarme

evokes in

his

Preface to

"Un

Coup

de

des"

(OC,

455-56) musicas a resourcewhichtextualspacing and movement

should

exploit.

He

cautions

one

in

seeing

in

this

work

ittle

more

than

a

"spacing

of

reading":

what

s

engendered

by

the

dispersion

of

traditional

prosody by

blank

space

and

typography

s not

space,

but

movement.

t

accelerates the

pace

of

reading;

space

does not

exist in

itself,

but

is

"scanned,"

"intimated" n

a

"simultaneous

vision of

the

Page"

which

is

not

however

static: "La

fiction

effleurera t se

dissipera,

vite,

d'apres

la

mobilitede

l'ecrit."

The

successiveness f narrative, s well as that of time,by"raccourci,"

"hypothese,"

multiple

meanings.

Thought

moves

through

retraits,

prolongements,

uites";

the effect

of the

text s

that

of

a

musical

score,

a

"partition"

which

could

be an

accompaniment

for

many

of

the

motifs

ound

in

Michel

Serres.

Cohn

suggests

in

passing

that the

project

of the

Master,

his

"anciens

calculs,"

could evoke "the

mathematical

nd

physical

aws

which

ead to

man's

emergence."13

As

in

Serres,

the

circumstances

which

urround the dice

thrown from he

depths

of a

shipwreck,"

however "eternal,"are

unpredictable,

and

ultimately

menacing.

The

"Abyss"

contains both

potential,

oscillating,

virtual

movement-the

chora-and the

possibility

f a

clinamen-order out

of

turbulence:

"Soit

que

l'Abime ...

etale

.

.

.

sous

une

inclinaison

plane

desesperement."

The

movement of the

Abyss

suggests

a

downward

flight,

nd its

"wing"

could

point

to an effort o

reverse

the

flow of

entropy:

"par avance

retombee

d'un

mal

a

dresser

le

vol."

The

rocking

of the

boat

reinforces bortive

movement:

voile

alternative,"penche de 'un ou l'autrebord"; open and closed also

alternate:

"tres

a

l'interieur

resume

l'ombre

enfuie

dans

la

profondeur,"

couvrant

esjaillissements

oupant

au ras

les bonds."

2

Cohn,

pp.

10, 14,

39,

64,

66,

78,

93.

13

Cohn,

p.

50.



10/16

832

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

"L'envergure"

alternates

with

"beante

profondeur"

to

suggest

that which

is

buried,

potential,

but which

could

emerge,"chaos-verseau"or

"chaos-nuage."

The Master

navigates

by

means of the

oblique

"barre";

he "se

prepare s'agite

et

mele comme

on

menace

au

poing

qui

l'etreindrait

un destin

et

les

vents."

At

odds

with the

elements,

his conflict

s

indeed between

them and

destiny.

His dilemma:

should he

throw

"l'unique

Nombre

qui

ne

peut pas

etre un

autre,"

the ultimate

dice-throw,

dans la

tempete

en

reployer

a

division et

passe

fier,"

or

"jouer

.

la

partie

au nom des flots"?

hould he

attempt,

with

the ultimateNumber, to master nature, to rejoin divisions,or

should he

play

the

game

in the

name

of the

waves,

n

the

hope

that

the waves

themselves,

hrough

their

movement and

turbulence,

can

somehow

produce

order? His

ancestors-"l'aieul"-have

had a

perpetual

intercourse

withthe sea:

"ne

d'un

ebat

la

mer

par

l'aieul

ou l'aieul

par

la mer

une

chance

oiseuse

Fian:ailles

dont le voile

d'illusion

chancellera s'affalera

folie."

Such an uncertain

union

wavers, falters,

slides down

to

madness,

a

kind of

entropy

engendered by decline, emplifiedby the large-typeN'ABOLIRA

immediately

following.

The root

of "chancellera"

is

cadencia,

suggesting

for

Cohn

the

fall of

the dice.14

But

it

could

also

indicate

the "cadence

rythmee"

of

Derrida,

the "chute"

of

rythmos,

he

spacing

movement

of

the

chora,

he

equilibrium

to which all

must

return,

but also

the

ordering

of chaos

through

movement

from

which all

codes,

languages,

texts,

merge.

The

next set of

double

pages

confirms

his

ntuition,

eginning

not

only

a

section

n

italics,

ut

forming

lmost

the

literal

enter

of

the

poem:

"Une insinuation impleau silenceenroulee avec ironie

ou le

mystere

precipite

hurle dans

quelque

proche

tourbillon

d'hilarite

t d'horreur

voltige

utour

du

gouffre

ans

lejoncher

ni

fuir et

en berce

le

vierge

indice." Cohn

sees the

"tourbillon"

s

a

spiral

surrounded

by

the

words "comme

si,"

indicating

n

eddy,

a

momentary

tasis,

n

expansion

which

figures

ircles

which

almost,

yet

not

quite,

turn

back

on themselves. uch

a

figure

esonates

with

the

very

word "si": both

"if"

and

"yes,"

"s" is

the

analytical,

dissolving,disseminating etter;"i" is the letterwhich"resumes."

The essence

of the

whirlpool

s to

suck

in

its

surroundings

nd

yet

to

fling

out

a circle of

itself. But Cohn insists

on the

circular,

enclosed

nature

of

the

spiral throughout

his

interpretation,

ven

though

the

pattern

f words clustered round

the

whirlpool-center

14

Cohn,

p.

63.



11/16

M

L

N

833

can

move out of

itself,

making

a

spiral

whose

outer

contour

is

roughly

elliptical.15

For

Serres,

the

spiral-whirlpool-turbulence

s

equally crucial,

indicating

the inclinationof the clinamen

nd

the flow

of

atoms,

order from

chaos and the flow

toward

entropy,

configuration

that

would

preclude

the circular.

Such a

configuration

also

indicates

conflict,

menace,

danger,

even

physical

distress,

s the

perceiving ubject

s buffeted

by

competing signals,

a distressone

can also find in

Mallarm6.

Cohn does indeed sense the same

combination.

Insinuation"

could indicate the

tortuous

writhing

f

the

Chimera which n

Mallarme's

"La

Musique

et les lettres"

OC,

648) creates anguage itself, ut Cohn emphasizesthenegative ide

of

"art" rather

than a

productive

movement.

"Joncher"

ndicates

for

Cohn that

neither the

"insinuation" nor the

"tourbillon"

succeed in

penetrating

the

"silence-mystere"

from which

they

arose,

nor do

they

ucceed

in

fleeing

t.

Cohn would

thus

undercut

the

possibilities

f

disseminationof

the "tourbillon."

En

berce

le

vierge

indice"

would

be the first "letter"

emerging

from

turbulence,

s

Serres

might

lso

suggest: the

"horror" of

disorder,

the "hilarity"of creation. But the spiral for Cohn ultimately

indicates an eternal

return,

hough continuing

to

indicate

that

no

circle turns

back

on

itself.He

explains

however thatthis

s because

no

concept

can

exist without its

opposite;16

we have seen that

straightforward

olarities

re

displaced by

the

very

movement hat

engenders

them. Serres

points

out that an

inclination

plus

a circle

equals

a

spiral:

"La

turbulence de la

nature,

un

poeme

ecrit

en

tourbillon

qui

se boucle sans se boucler"

(NP, 169).

The

spiral

would

thus call

into

question

movements

of

synthesis

of

oppositions;

eternal return would be

always superseded by

entropy.

The "comme

si" also

governs

the

following

ection of "Un

Coup

de d6s." "Comme"

is

the

establishment of a

relation;

"si" an

affirmation after

negation:

this section

appropriately enough

evokes

Hamlet,

"prince

amer

de

l'ecueil"

(recall

the

"recif"

of

"Salut")

whose feathered

cap

is

ludicrously

rect

n

the

face

of

"la

foudre":

"plume

solitaire

6perdue

...

cette blancheur

rigide

derisoireen opposition au ciel trop ... sa petiteraison virile en

foudre." But

we recall withSerres that la foudre" s

in

a sense

the

condition

of

possibility

f

reason,

a

rarity

which

falls

with the

15

Cohn,

pp.

31,

65-67.

16

Cohn,

pp.

68, 70,

93.



12/16

834

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

cadence of

rythmos

nd the

clinamen. Derrida

remarks that

"l'Tlevation

e la

plume

est

toujours

'imminence u

l'Fv&enement

e

sa

chute,"

and cites the "effets de

glotte"

of Mallarme's Le

Livre-"plusje

plu

me

plume

et

chute

choc"

(DS,

305-307)-which,

oddly

enough,

resonate with

many

metaphorical

connections

found

in

Serres.

Hamlet's

crisis,

figuring

that of the

Master,

is

echoed

in

the "crise

de

vers,"

which,

we

recall,

is

meteorological.

Derrida recalls that

the

original

title

of "Crise

de vers"

was

"Averses,"

suggesting

an

"orage

historique

...

pluie

...

Faits

d'hiver"

(DS,

314-15).

We recall as well that the

navigation

of

"Salut" was governed by a poetic avant-garde, l'avant fastueux"

which

"cuts"-always

obliquely-"le

flot de

foudres et

d'hivers."

The

"hilarity

nd horror" of

the whirlwind

s echoed

by

the

"rire

que

SI"

of

Hamlet who

"scintille

e

vertige,"

nd

by

the

contorsions

of

drowning

irens,

recalling

he

"insinuation" f the

Chimera,

and

also

the

"Telle loin

se noie une

troupe

/

De

sirenes

.

.

."

of "Salut."

The

"torsion

de sirene

.

. .

par

d'impatientes squames

ultimes

bifurquees"

of"Un

Coup

de d6s"

remind

one,

with

Serres,

that,

n

the unlimited topology of the chora, it is the bifurcation that

produces

"catastrophes"

n

the

fall of

"chreodes"

(D,

244-45).

But

bifurcation

lso creates

meaning,

direction;

n

"Un

Coup

de

des,"

the

"ecueil"

of

Hamlet

becomes

a

"roc

faux

manoir

tout de

suite

evapore

en

brumes

qui imposa

une

borne

a l'infini":

limit,

sort

of

order,

out of

the

"chaos-nuage."

The

Number would be the

ultimate

rder, "issu

stellaire,"

rare,

agonized

result of

buffeting

movementwhich

nevertheless,

n

the

uncertainty

f its

apparition,

does not abolish

chance:

EXISTAT-IL

autrement

qu'hallucination

eparse

d'agonie

COMMENCAT-IL

ET

CESSAT-IL

sourdant

ue

nie

et clos

quand

apparu

enfin

par

quelque

profusion

repandue

en

rarete SE

CHIFFRAT-IL

evidence

de la somme

pour peu

qu'une

ILLUMINAT-IL

CE SERAIT

pire

non

davantage

i moins

ndifferent

mais utant E

HASARD

The

Number bubbles

up

when

denied,

profuse

and

rare,

participating

n

infinity"chiffrat")

but

also

in

order

("existat,"

"commencat," cessat,"

"illuminat"):

the musicof the sea and that

of

the

river,

with

beginning

nd an

end. But it

participates

o

less

in

the

rhythmical

adence which

tends,

despite

archipelagoes

of

negentropy

on

the sea of

background

noise,

toward

equilibrium,

neutrality,

ntropy:

Choit la

plume

rythmique uspens

du

sinistre

s'ensevelir

aux

ecumes

originelles

nagueres

d'ou sursauta son



13/16

M L N 835

delire

jusqu'a

une cime

fletrie

par

la

neutralite

identique

au

gouffre."

That which

subsists is not

therefore the

Number,

but the

place,

the

"lieu,"

the

chora:

RIEN

de la memorable

crise ou se

fut

'evenement

accompli

en

vue de

tout

resultat nul humain N'AURA

EU LIEU une

elevation ordinaire

verse

l'absence

QUE

LE

LIEU

inferieur

clapotis quelconque

pour

disperser

lacte

vide

abruptement que

sinon

par

son

mensonge

eit

fonde la

perdition

dans ces

parages

du

vague

en

quoi

toute realite se

dissout

We find the

flow of the

"chaos-verseau"

("verse"),

the

descent

of

the "point extremal" of the "crise" toward the "inferior"; the

dispersal,

dissemination,

dissolution,

distribution of

the

"chaos-nuage":

the

vagueness

into which all

reality

is

ultimately

dissolved.

But the final

pages

indicate the far-off

hope:

the constellation

which is not however a static

transcendence,

but which

participates

in

the same movement

of

shocks

and

declines

which

engenders

it:

EXCEPTE

a

l'altitude

PEUT-ETRE

aussi loin

qu'un

endroit

fusionne

avec au-dela hors d'interetquant a lui

signale

en

general

selon telle

obliquite

par

telle

declivitede

feux vers

ce doit etre e

Septentrion

ussi

Nord UNE

CONSTELLATION froide

'oubli et de desuetude

pas

tant

qu'elle

n'enumere

sur

quelque

surface vacante et

superieure

le

heurt

successif

ideralementd'un

compte

total en formation eillant

doutant

roulant brillant t

meditantavant de

s'arreter

quelque

point

dernier

qui

le

sacre

We encounter

again

that elevation

("altitude"),

that

"point

extremal" of crisis. In "La Musique et les lettres" however Mallarm6

indicates that

pyrotechnical

fusion

at

great

height

is not a

transcendence,

but another

kind of

ephemeral pattern

(OC,

647).

The

constellation

belongs

perhaps

less to the

firmament

of eternal

revolution

than to the

reflection and

refraction on

a bias

of words

on

a

page,

which,

in

"L'Action

restreinte,"

mirror the

stars black

on

white,

white

on

black:

"Tu

remarqueras,

on n'ecrit

pas,

lumineusement,

sur

champ

obscur,

l'alphabet

des

astres,

seul,

ainsi

s'indique,

6bauche

ou

interrompu;

l'homme

poursuit

noir sur

blanc"

(OC,

370).

In "Un

Coup

de

des,"

the

"total number" is

in

formation

only,

observed

only

at

the

moment

before

ts

supposed

consecration,

the

halting

of

its movement. The

time

of "Un

Coup

de des" is

thefutur

anterieur,

f

incomplete,

deferred

action. The Mime

of

"Mimique,"



14/16

836

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

"ici

devanjant,

la

rem6morant,

au

futur,

au

passe,

sous

une

apparencefausse

e

present

..

installe,

insi,

un

milieu,

pur,

de

fiction"

(OC,

310):

"rien n'aura eu lieu

que

le

lieu,

excepte peut-etre

une

constellation."

But

the constellation

oes

not "take

place"

any

more

than

does

the

"place":

never

formed,

always

in

motion,

it

participates

n

entropy

while

restraining

ts

movement,

ike

music,

like

language,

like the

movement

of

atoms,

"turbulences,"

"tourbillons,"

n Michel Serres.

Jean Hyppolite

inks Un

Coup

de d6s"

with nformation

heory,

entropy,

and

Maxwell's

Demon.17

For

Hyppolite,

"Un

Coup

de

des," by replacingchance withnecessity, onfirms, y questioning

the conditions

of

possibility

f the

message

itself,

hat he

"content"

of

the

message

is

its "form."

Information

s characterized

by

an

almost

mpossible

miracle,

which

emerges

only

to almost

nevitably

disappear.

Yet it is

opposed

to

entropy:

the

general

system

may

tend

toward

equilibrium,

but

local

singularities

what

Serres

calls

turbulences)

produce

order

out

of

disorder.

The

increase

of

entropy

is

for an

instant

avoided;

the

unpredictable

(Serres'

"meteorological") replaces the monotony of irreversibility.

Maxwell's

Demon

is

the

personification

f

attempts

o retard

that

flow:

his

calculations,

like those

of

Mallarme's

"aieul,"

would

extract

maximum

information

from

the

probable,

pure

chance,

disorder

and

repetition.

Typography

would also

for

Hyppolite

confirm

those

calculations,

"modelling"

information,

ffording

form

in

regularity,

originality

within

the

unpredictable,

distinguishable

from

background

noise,

chance,

the

dissipation

of

any message.

The

message

would

thus for

Hyppolite

abolish

chance,

becoming

a sort of

necessity.

The constellationwould

exhibit

his

tendency

oward

the

static,

he constitution

f

meaning

through

the

risk of

tracing

a

message

which is a

message

only.

Neither

triumphant

logos

nor extreme

finality,

the

message

revolves

ike

the

stars,

revolu

aussit6t

uejet6."18

While

Hyppolite

senses

the

movement

to which

I

have

pointed

at

the end

of

"Un

Coup

de

des,"

like

Deleuze,

like

Cohn,

he maintains

polarities-

chance and

necessity,

nformation

nd

entropy.

The

Master,

ike

Maxwell's Demon, sortsdisorder to obtain the greatestpossible

amount

of

information,

producing,

through

Number,

the con-

17

ean

Hyppolite,

"Le

Coup

de

des

de

Stephane

Mallarme

et

le

message,"

Etudes

philosophiques,

(1958),

463-68.

18

Hyppolite, p.

468.



15/16

M

L N

837

stellation:

"Toute

pens6e

emet

un

coup

de

d6s,"

but

stability

s

emphasized

over

movement,

an

interpretation

we have

seen

opposed byfigures s diverse as Blanchot,Derrida and Serres.

Serres sees

the

attempt

o

gain greater

and

greater

quantities

of

information,

o make more and more

exact

measurements,

s

an

indication

of

potential

transcendence n a scientific

iscourse: the

universe

that

can

be measured can be

mastered

NP,

173)

through

Number,

a constellation.

But,

as Serres

points

out,

exactitude

is

paid

for-"anciens

calculs"-in

an

infinite

quantity

of

negen-

tropy;

the

"money"

of

knowledge

is obtained

only

at the

expense

of an

infinite mount

of

futuretime

n

which

to

acquit

one's debt.

Thus masterycan

produce

bankruptcy

D, 33-36), and we are

"hurled,

precipitated"

to that future anterior

where

nothing

is

accomplished,

all is

deferred,

where

entropy

s halted

but

where

movement s incessant:

the

time-space

f the

"lieu,"

of the

Number,

of

the

"tourbillon,"

f the

Constellation.

Maxwell's

Demon

is

the

fiction

y

which

the Second

Principle

f

thermodynamics

ails;

he

is

the sorter

producing

the

spatial

deviation

that

is the condition

of

possibility

f

order, differentiation,

nformation

D, 48,

55):

that

whichdifferssdeferred, ntroducing eversibilitynirreversibility.

His order is not

static

necessity,

but

participates

n

the

kind of

movement that characterizes

chance

itself.

As

negentropy

increases,

one

discovers that

rich,

exceptional

situation

that was

capable

of

producing

a constellation:

celle ou se trouve

e

D6mon

de Maxwell a

la

fin

de

son oeuvre

de

selection

et de tri"

D,

56).

But Maxwell's

Demon

implies

a

desire

fororder:

the

tendency

n

science is

to

master,

measure

laws

of nature.

But,

Serres

suggests,

science

should view the

acquiring

of information

s a

game

rather

than

as a combat.

t is a

game

with

dversaries,

rules,

ordered

play;

the

player

must

make a choice

or decision

from

a

multiplicity

f

possibilities.

But

if

science

were less

concerned

with

absolute

mastery,

t

would

have

open

to it the movement

of the

aleatory,

f

risk,

but

of

possible

gain.

Serres

suggests

a

new

displacement

of

science,

which also

implies

a redefinition

of

communication,

whereby

one

can nevertheless

sort,

read,

know,

form

relations

(D,

223).

Mallarme, in "Un Coup de d6s," may well have, rather than

failed,

simply

renounced the

kind of

mastery

that

necessity,

appropriation,

measurement

implies.

But

renunciation

or

displacement

of

mastery

does

not

imply

the renunciation

of the

forming

of

relationships,

of

information,

f communication.

n



16/16

838

BONNIE

J.

SAAC

"La

Musique

et

les

lettres,"

nd

elsewhere,

Mallarme

introduces

the categories of "game" or "fiction"to displace any potential

moment

of

final

unity,

of

transcendent

synthesis.

He

points

to

the

"supercherie"

of an "attirance

uperieure

comme

d'un

vide,"

of

"quelque

6elvation

d6fendue et

de foudre

le

conscient

manque

chez nous

de ce

qui

la-haut

6clate"

(OC,

647).

One

can

play

the

game

with all

seriousness,

but the "final

move" never

takes

place,

or

rather is

displaced by

"un tour

de

trop,"

or

"de

trope,"

by

a

constant

movement f

textuality

tself.

A

quoi

sert

ela?",

Mallarm6

asks

in

the same above-cited

passage:

of what

use is the

potential

for transcendence?"A un

jeu,"

he answers: the dice-throw hat

thought

emits,

du

fond

d'un

naufrage."

University

f California,

erkeley

mallarme´s coup

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